


Living With You

by SpaghettiBabie



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alador Blight isn't the absolute worst, Amity Blight Needs a Hug, Amity Blight-centric, Angst, Beta Concept Art Amity Blight and Beta Concept Art Luz Noceda, Bisexual Luz Noceda, Childhood Friends, Drug Use, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, First Kiss, First Meetings, Flirty Luz Noceda, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Enemies, Grief/Mourning, Growing Up Together, Homophobia, I'm Going to Hell, Lilith is nice, Luz Noceda Needs a Hug, Making Out, Odalia Blight Being an Asshole, Slow Burn, Swearing, Terminal Illnesses, Top Luz Noceda, lots and lots of angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-13 14:40:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 12,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29652837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaghettiBabie/pseuds/SpaghettiBabie
Summary: "Don't let go of me," she whimpers, burying her face into Luz's shoulder.The dark brown-haired girl shuts her eyes and holds her best friend close. "I won't, Ammy. I promise."From the beginning, Amity Blight and Luz Noceda were the best of friends. They did everything together; they'd eat lunch together, they'd play during recess, and they'd help each other when they needed it most.Amity's mother, however, doesn't approve of their friendship. Not in the slightest.
Relationships: Alador Blight/Odalia Blight, Amity Blight & Luz Noceda & Willow Park, Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Edric Blight & Emira Blight
Comments: 136
Kudos: 253





	1. Meeting You

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first ever work here! I'm so excited to be writing this ^^ I hope you like it!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shy, four year-old Amity finds a girl at recess who, coincidentally, she feels comfortable talking to.

The woman with raven hair crouches down to the little girl's height. She smiles to her softly, "You must be Amity."

Frightened, Amity looks up at her mother. "Come on, dear," Odalia pushes a bit gentler than usual, "don't be rude. Say hi."

She looks down at the white tile floor and slowly steps away from behind her mother to approach the other woman. "Hi, Miss Lilith," she greets, only above a whisper.

"What a sweetheart," Lilith smiles adoringly to either herself, the child, or the woman in front of her; not even she could tell. Regardless, she switched her gaze back to Mrs. Blight and affirmed, "She'll make plenty of friends here."

Odalia chuckles darkly and pats her daughter's head, "Of course she will. She's a Blight, after all."  
  
Lilith raises a brow at the statement before shrugging it off. "Class is starting in a couple of minutes if you'd like to introduce yourself," she continues to pry the shy girl out of her shell.

She gives her teacher a slight smile; perhaps not even that, maybe more of the ghost of a smile.

As she takes a step away from her mother, she feels a hand on her shoulder. Timidly, she turns around to see her kneel before her.

"Amity, listen," Mrs. Blight sternly whispers, a slight snarl in her bitter voice. It's enough to make the little girl frown again. "You're not to associate with anyone below our status."

"A-so... a..." Amity struggles to pronounce the word.

She rolls her eyes. "Don't talk to any low-lives," her mother rephrases, "and keep your hair out of your face," she finishes, pushing her child's dark ginger bangs to the sides of her face and away from her eyes. Amity looks sadly at her mother before being waved off. "I'll pick you up at 3:00."

"Bye, Mommy," she mutters.

As usual, just like when she says 'good morning', 'goodnight', or even 'I love you', her mother doesn't respond.

"Come, children! We have a new friend joining us today!" she hears Miss Lilith exclaim, accompanied by her hands rhythmically clapping. Taking one last glance at the door, she shakes her head and musses her hair before joining the rest of her class.

Except, instead of sitting on the rainbow rug with the others, she'd be standing in front of them.

She stands next to the teacher and eyes her nervously, to which she gives her a reassuring nod.

"You can do it!" one of the children sitting at the back calls out. The sudden outburst leads to a few giggles erupting throughout the classroom.  
  
Even Amity smiles a bit, more-so than earlier.

With a final gulp, she finally verbalizes with only a slight stutter, "Hi, my n-name is Amity Blight, and I'm four years old."

"No way, me too!" one of the girls at the front beam, a bit too noisily and obnoxiously for Amity. In reply, she gives her a forced smile before awkwardly leaving to find a spot on the rug.

She feels a gentle tug on her white dress and turns to see a girl dressed in pink, who is sitting behind the annoying girl. "Sorry about Skara. She's a little... _dumb_ ," she snickers, keeping the last word to a whisper. "I'm Boscha. You should sit with me."

Amity frowns. "She's not dumb."

"Who?" the girl with the ponytail asks.

"None of your business, Skara," Boscha sneers.

"Hush, girls. We don't want to scare Amity away already, do we?" Miss Lilith jokes. Boscha and Skara immediately stop talking.

The dark ginger-haired girl sighs softly and plops down a foot or two away from the others.

"This is gonna be a long day," she remembers her parents saying frequently.  
  
Too frequently.

* * *

As strict as her mother is, Amity has quite an imagination. She's found entertainment in taking rocks from along the fence—big ones, small ones, shiny ones, dirty ones—and burying them all in the sandbox, marking the burial spots with X's, and roaming the entire playground to find them again.

"Looking for diamonds," she calls it.

She kneels in the sand, digging up one of the diamonds and holding it up in the air with pride. "It's worth a fortune!" she cries out happily, never taking her eyes off the dirty, jagged stone.

Boscha approaches her, a look of confusion and disgust on her face.

She finally notices the girl staring at her and lowers her arm. "Hi."

"Hi," Boscha forces a smile, "can I borrow that rock?"

Amity looks at the rock in her palm for a split second before handing it to the girl, but not without correcting her, "It's a diamond."

"Sure," she says blankly before walking off.

But not out of sight.

Amity gasps with panic as she sees Boscha throw her treasured diamond at another little girl. It hits her face, and despite its size, the force is enough to make her fall backwards.

"Hey!" Amity shouts, sprinting over to the gray-eyed girl, as well as the one lying on the ground. She begins to tackle Boscha, screaming, "Don't do that! Don't hurt people!"

"Stop it! Stop! You're gonna get my dress dirty!"

"So?!" she shouts a final time, raising her voice impossibly higher.

Boscha pushes her off. "I'm telling Miss Lilith!" she sniffles dramatically.

Amity glares at the mean girl with a huff as she runs off. She turns her attention to the girl whom Boscha had been picking on. She sits down next to her and asks, "Are you okay?"

The sad girl looks up at her slowly to reveal a nasty, dark purple-red bruise around her left eye. She chokes out a sob and shakes her head. Amity frowns and gives her a hug.

"It's okay. What's your name?"  
  
The sobbing makes the dark brown-haired girl's words incoherent.

"Lu... Lu..."

Amity hugs the girl—Lulu—even tighter. "I've got you, Lulu! It's okay!"

The other girl begins to laugh despite her tears, "That's a silly nickname."

"That's not your real name?"

"No, no," she smiles, backing away from the hug and wiping the big wad of snot from her nose, "It's Luz. Lulu is a good nickname, though."

_Luz._

_Luz. Luz. Luz._

The name repeats itself in the Amity's head like a broken record player.

"Luz!" she beams.

"Amity!" the once crying girl mimics, now smiling brightly; brighter than the sun that touches her tan skin and makes her brown eyes sparkle.

"Come on," Amity says, "let's take you to Miss Lilith. She'll help you."

Amity and Luz.

Luz and Amity.  
  
Already forever an inseparable pair, and their friendship has only just begun.


	2. Talking About You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Odalia and Alador are suspicious of their youngest daughter's new friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I woke up this afternoon to see like 140 hits and 37 kudos on the first chapter and I :( I'm so grateful, thank you ❤️

There was a large smile on her face when her mother had picked her up from preschool. This was confusing, almost daunting to her, as she had never once smiled so widely around her family. Now, she lay on her stomach in her bedroom, drawing a picture of her and her new best friend with crayons. She scribbles a big, purple triangle to draw her dress—which she wasn't even wearing, she wore a striped shirt—and writes their names above their heads, finishing her masterpiece with a big, red heart next to Luz's name.

Her head shoots up the moment there's a rapid knock—or maybe two—on her door. "Come in!" she calls out in response.

Her brother and sister, both aged six, open the door.

"Hiya, Mittens!" her older brother, Edric, greets happily. "Mom wanted us to tell you t-"

"That dinner is almost done!" Emira, his twin, interrupts.

The brother pouts and cries, " _Emira!_ " The older sister only laughs as he blabbers on, "I wanted to say that!"

The two of them continue bantering as they walk back downstairs. Amity gives a quick giggle before folding up the picture and putting it in her fluffy, colorful backpack.

Her heart was overflowing with excitement; she couldn't wait to tell her family about her new friend.

Amity rushes down the stairs, to which her father scolds her, "Amity, no running!"

"Sorry, Daddy," she apologizes nonchalantly, catching both parents off guard. Their youngest child had never been so unbothered—not that they wanted to hurt her purposely, of course—but she had also never been so cheerful despite being yelled at.

Even the twins find the sudden change in her behavior a bit unsettling.

She sits herself down in the empty chair between her older siblings, never noticing the strange looks they're giving her.

Odalia is sitting at one end of the table and Alador sits at the other. The table is long, even for the fancy parties that they throw, and the excessive bouquet centerpiece only makes Amity cringe more.

In front of each family member is a plate of steak and assorted vegetables. Both of the twins stare at the meal with watering mouths, but the youngest girl couldn't care less.

She pokes at the meat with one of the forks—she couldn't tell the difference between a salad fork and a dinner fork, why does it matter anyway—before their mother speaks up, "Wrong fork."

"Huh?" Amity tilts her head.

"Wrong fork," Odalia repeats slowly.

"Oh! Oops," the little girl giggles awkwardly, shifting in her seat and picking up the other fork. "So..." she trails off, only making things more awkward.

Her father looks her in the eye impatiently before taking another bite of food.

She lets out a whistle—actually, makes a _poor_ attempt to whistle, accidentally spitting across the table—before continuing, "I made a friend today."

Odalia hums and looks straight ahead at Alador before replying, "Really? You seemed so shy when I went to drop you off. I would've expected you to run after me, dear!"

The remark causes the twins to snicker.

"No, I met someone nice," Amity carries on, excitement only building up more and more in her chest. Her best friend's name starts to repeat itself in her head all over again, as it had done earlier.

"And what was their name?" her father chimes in.

Amity's smile grows even bigger and her cheeks begin to flush as the name rolls off of her tongue, "Luz!"

To her surprise, the rest of the family is entirely quiet except for the dismissive hum from her mother. "And where do her parents work?" she asks, taking a sip of her red wine.

"That's... that's not actually important, is it?" she mumbles.

Odalia raises her eyebrows and gently sets down the glass. "Amity, dear," she starts in her soft, calm, and collected voice, but definitely with an evident harsh undertone, "you know better than to talk back, don't you?"  
  
"Sorry, Mommy."  
  
"That's _very_ important information to know, actually," she finally answers, glaring at her two older children after catching them whispering. After they put their hands in their laps and sit up straight, she continues the lecture, "Remember what I told you this morning? No talking to losers?"

"But," the youngest girl suppresses the urge to cry, "Luz isn't a loser! She's my best friend!"

Her mother then practically loses it, "You haven't got a say in what she is to us! She doesn't mean a thing to _anyone_ if she's below us, do you understand what I'm saying, young lady?!"

Amity takes a deep breath in before screaming at the top of her lungs; it's a bloodcurdling, heart wrenching scream that leaves her throat raw and her siblings in shock. She leaps out of her chair before running away, back up into her room, where she's decided that she'd be staying for the rest of the night.

Warm, salty tears stream down her face. She buries her face into her pillow and sobs, hugging it closer to herself.

"Mittens?" Emira calls from the other side of the door, "Uh... Ed and I were told to go upstairs, and we were wondering if you wanted to play with us?"

"Or if we could come in and cheer you up," Edric adds on.

Amity sniffs and rolls off of her bed to open the door. "I want a hug," she croaks, eyes dancing between the two.

They open the door and wrap their arms around their little sister, exclaiming in unison, "Sibling hug!"

The weight of the two six year-olds causes the four year old to tumble and fall backwards with a laugh.

Perhaps her siblings aren't _always_ the worst.

* * *

The following morning, Amity stands in front of the door in a white blouse, black skirt, white socks, and black Mary-Janes. Her hair is pushed out of her face, just like her mother wants it to be.

Not at all how _she_ wants it to be.

Her father fixes his tie as he comes down the stairs. His youngest child fixates her gaze on him—it's an unbearably sad gaze—and he slowly approaches her.

"Where's Mommy?" is the first thing she asks, her voice wavering.

"Work," Alador answers, looking her in the eye, "I'll be taking you to preschool today."  
  
He steps over to the door, hand only hovering over the knob, right before he hears the girl squeak out a word, "Did..." he turns around to look at her, and she sighs before proceeding, "did she mean it? What she said last night?"  
  
He frowns; not with anger, as he often would, but with sheer sadness. "Amity, darling," he whispers before taking a deep breath and kneeling before his youngest daughter, "Your mother means... a lot of things," he explains. "I wouldn't be surprised if she meant what she said last night, but I think..." he trails off, "I think you should be friends with whoever you please."

His smile took her by surprise. Amity tightly shuts her eyes and bows her head as she feels one of his hands ruffle up her hair. 

"And I think that you should keep your hair like this," he concludes, smiling bigger than Amity had ever seen him smile before.

Overwhelmed with joy, the four year-old gives him a big hug.

It was the first hug she'd ever given one of her parents, and hopefully, _hopefully,_ there'd be more.


	3. My First Full Day Spent With You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day after meeting, Luz and Amity spend their first full school day together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fluff,, so, SO much fluff (。┰ω┰。)

"Amity!"

The girl with messy hair whirls around to have the shorter girl jump on top of her. Her brunette curls smell of sweet peaches and pure bliss, just as Amity remembers from the previous day.

A melodic giggle—a song to Luz's ears—flows from the honey-eyed girl's mouth. She lifts a hand to point at the black, cushioned piece over her friend's left eye, the one that had been injured, "Luz, you have an eye patch!"

"I know! My mami got it for me," she twinkles, far more excited than she should be, "so I look like a pirate now!"

Both children laugh once more and pick themselves up off of the ground. "Come on, Lulu," Amity beams, offering her hand to her shorter friend, "let's sit at a table."

Luz eyes her hand with worry, "Are you sure?" she asks with reddened cheeks.

"Mhm!" she nods. Her smile then falls slightly. "Unless you don't wanna hold my hand, that's fine too!"

"No! No! I wanna hold your hand!" Luz blurts out, cheeks an even deeper red than before. She looks down with shame before resting her hand in her friend's palm. As they walk slowly—per Amity's choice, since she doesn't want her best friend getting hurt any more than she already is—to a table in the back, her voice cracks, "Was I too loud?"

The taller girl feels her heart sink as a tear rolls down the other girl's face.

"No, Luz! Please don't cry!" she panics, hugging her again. "I like it when you're happy! Please smile again, please!"

Luz wipes away her tears and sniffs as Amity unzips her backpack to dig for the picture that she had drawn last night. She finally locates the poorly folded paper and hands it to her best friend, "I drew it yesterday. It's a get better present!"

She watches as she takes the paper and unfolds it carefully. The brunette stares at the drawing in awe for five seconds before wailing _again_ ; except, this time, they were tears of joy.  
  
"Oh, Ammy," she squeals, wrapping her arms around the taller girl, "this makes me _really_ happy!"  
  
Amity swears she feels her heart stop right there.

_Ammy. Ammy. Ammy._

Again, the broken record player repeats itself.

"I hear crying," the little girls' teacher calls to the entire class, "what's going on?"

"Miss Lilith, Amity gave me this drawing and I... I..."

Luz bursts into a huge fit of tears a final time before getting a soft pat on the back from her best friend. "It's okay. It's just a drawing," she stifles a giggle.

But to little Luz, it's so much more than a drawing. It's a promise—an everlasting oath—that their friendship is unbreakable, and that Amity will stay by her side no matter what happens.

* * *

Just as Amity is about to drink some of the tomato soup from her thermos, she hears her friend sigh.

"Are you okay?"

"Mami forgot to cut the crusts off my peanut butter and jelly again."

She puckers her lips as she thinks. Finally, a lightbulb goes off in her head, and she suggests, "If you pick them off, I can eat them."

Luz's mouth gapes in surprise. "But... but _nobody_ likes the crust."

"I know, but I'll eat it for you so you don't have to throw it away!"

Amity's words don't hesitate to make the other girl smile, as usual, and she begins to slowly, _carefully_ peel the crusts off of her sandwich. She places each severed piece of bread crust on her friend's soup-covered napkin until there's nothing— _almost_ nothing, at very least—left on the edges of the bread. Amity picks at the pieces of crust and takes a swig of her soup every three pieces or so.

"You know," the girl with curls frowns with guilt, "you didn't have to do that for me. I was okay with eating the crust."

"But you looked so sad," the messy-haired girl insists, popping another piece of crust into her mouth. "Besides, it's not that bad."

"It isn't?" Luz tilts her head, "Can I try a bit?"

Amity giggles and slides the napkin between the both of them. She watches her friend take a couple pieces of the bread crust and put them in her mouth.

Her eyes widen with surprise; it's not at all dry and rough like it usually is, but rather soft and slightly sweet. The bread melts in her mouth, which is out of the ordinary for the sandwiches she gets for lunch, but _God,_ she's not complaining.

"Yeah," the brunette nods in agreement, taking another piece, "this isn't bad at all!"

* * *

After the class ate lunch, they went out for recess. Amity just _needed_ to show Luz how she went on quests to look for diamonds.

"So, we're like pirates, then?"

"Yeah! Exactly!" the girl with pale skin replies with a grin.

The tan brunette looks down in thought, "Who's the captain?"

" _You_ have the eye patch," Amity remarks. "It'd make sense if you were the captain."

"Yeah, but..." Luz sits in the sandbox and digs up the area of sand in front of her, "You know what the captain does, 'cause you've _always_ been captain, haven't you?"

"Well," the taller girl looks to the side before sitting down with her friend, "it's always just been me. At my old preschool, I didn't have many friends either, so I had no crew of pirates to look for treasure with." After a few seconds of silence, the girl with chocolate eyes came to the conclusion that Amity, without a doubt, should be the captain of the ship. Amity looks to her and shakes her head, "No, Lulu, I shouldn't. You'd make a much better captain than me."

"You should be the captain," Luz insists a final time, "and I'll be your first mate. I'll help you out if you need me. I always will!"

Amity's honey-colored eyes sparkle in the sun like gemstones. "Thank you," she beams.

"Of course!" Luz giggles, "That's what best friends do, right?" Amity looks down with a slight sadness in her heart, for she wouldn't know; she's never _had_ a best friend until Luz came along. Her thoughts are interrupted by her said best friend proudly declaring, "Together, we will rule the seven seas! We'll be rich and famous, like movie stars! I'm gonna get some sticks and leaves!"

"Huh? Sticks and leaves?"

"Yeah," Luz still beams with pride, "I think they deserve as much love as rocks. They'll be..." she ponders, "gold and silk!"

"Gold and silk? I haven't thought about that," Amity hums. "Are you _sure_ someone as wise as you shouldn't be captain?"

Luz sighs. "Captain Ammy, we've been over this," she concludes, "you're more experienced than I am. I'm your first mate, okay? I don't know how to be a good captain."

The dark ginger-haired girl furrows her brows and thinks once more. "What if... you were my second captain?"

" _Second_ captain? Does that even exist?"

"I don't know. But that's what you are."

Their conversation is interrupted by Boscha and Skara walking to the sandbox. "Hey, dummies," Boscha sneers, "we wanna use the sandbox. Move."

"Well," Luz tries to stick up for herself, but she's on the verge of tears. "We were just about to go back to our ship anyway—"

"No!" Luz turns around with glossy eyes to look at Amity, her hands clenched into fists. "This is our island! You can't take us off of it, _scallywag!_ "

"What did you just call me?!" Boscha growls.

"A scallywag! That's pirate-talk for a big jerk!"

The girls in front of them gasp and Luz snickers softly behind her captain.

"You aren't gonna hear the end of it after I tell Miss Lilith about this," Boscha huffs. "Come on, Skara. We're gonna find something better to do."


	4. A Year Since I Met You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now both five years old, Luz and Amity embark on their journey through kindergarten.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aka the one with the uh oh word

Luz has her shoulder-length, brown locks tied into pigtails with mismatched ribbons; one purple and one green. Her wispy, curly bangs, despite being see-through, cover up her eyes for the most part, but she claims to see just fine. She wears a plain, white t-shirt with some overalls and a pair of her beat up sneakers, along with two mismatched socks; one orange with white polka dots, and the other pink with red hearts.

Amity, on the other hand, is dressed in her usual polished style. She has her hair put back in a ponytail—per her mother's preference—with a simple, black hair tie, and she wears a white dress with a black cardigan. Her black dress shoes were shined the night before, and her mother made sure that they got shined a second time that morning. "As a Blight, you have to look presentable at all times," she'd remind her too often; far, _far_ too often.

The other kids in their class stare and whisper about them as they walk by, holding hands. They sit at their assigned table—the one with a small, blue bin full of crayons and pencils in the center—and notice the amount of children shooting them dirty looks.

"What's going on?" Luz asks the honey-eyed girl softly, "Why are they looking at us like that?"

"I know why," the raven-haired girl sitting in front of her says. She's a complete stranger to them, as well as the boy with ebony skin who sits in front of Amity; Luz, however, trusts them immediately.

"Is it because of my socks? Or maybe my ribbons?" the girl with tan skin rambles. "I couldn't find any matching ribbons—"

"It's because you're holding hands."

Luz moves her chocolate eyes down to look at her and Amity's intertwined fingers before furrowing her brows in both sadness and confusion, "But we've held hands every day for a year! What's wrong with that?"

Finally, the boy at their table speaks up, "People hold hands if they like each other."

Instead of letting go of her friend's hand, the girl with the dark ginger ponytail only squeezes it tighter. "Well, I like Luz! I like her a lot!" she protests.

A cherry red blush creeps across Luz's face. "You... You like me?"

"Yeah, you're my best friend! How could I _not_ like you?"

"Hmm," she looks down, "you're right."

The girl with emerald eyes sighs and corrects the two, "Not like in a friendly way. I mean _like_ like."

" _Really_ like," the boy adds on. "By the way, my name is Augustus, but I like being called Gus."

"Oh, right! I forgot!" the girl next to Gus giggles, "I'm Willow. Willow Park."

"It's nice to meet you both! I'm Amity, and this is Luz, my best friend!" she beams, gesturing to the girl next to her, who's still holding her hand tightly with no signs of letting go.

Luz still pouts, "Why can't we hold hands, though?"

"Oh! You can, it's just," Willow begins to frown herself, "some people won't like it."

"What? Why not?" Luz asks with curiosity.

"There are a lot of people who think it's weird for two girls—or two boys—to hold hands."

The tan girl's face grows a deeper shade of red as her anger festers, before nearly screaming, "Are you serious? That's so _stupid_!"

Her outburst catches the attention of a few surrounding classmates. Some whisper, some stay silent, and the rest make that annoying "Ooh" noise that kids often make whenever someone uses foul language or anything else that isn't allowed.

"Lulu, no, you're gonna get in trouble," Amity warns, "don't say that word, please..."

"Nuh-uh!" Luz scowls, turning to the rest of the class. "I can hold Ammy's hand if I want to," she calls out to the entire class, causing the teacher to look up from her computer abruptly, "no one can stop me from doing that! It's... it's..."

The entire classroom watches with suspense and anticipation, waiting to see what the girl has to say next. The rest of Luz's table looks away—Amity even going as far as burying her face into her arms.

The final words finally ring out throughout the classroom; maybe even the entire hall: "It's fucked up!"

* * *

Now, the two sit in the principal's office; Amity isn't there because she was a part of it, of course, but rather for moral support.

Her arms are crossed tightly at her chest while her best friend whistles while looking around the room, acting like she had done nothing wrong.  
  
The girl with honey colored, glossy eyes and cheeks flushed out of embarrassment takes a deep breath and, without hesitation, confronts the girl sitting next to her, "You can't say that. You _shouldn't_ have said that."

The whistling comes to a sudden stop and single tear drips from one of those chocolate eyes as Luz dryly responds, "Yeah. I know it's a bad word. I'm sorry."

"You... embarrassed me, only a little bit, but... I still feel kinda bad."

"I did?! Ammy, I'm sorry, I'm sorry—" she panics as tears begin to stream down her face. The poor girl would've collapsed right on the floor if Amity hadn't caught her.

Luz rests her head on her best friend's shoulder and weeps, begging for forgiveness though sobs, while she gets pats on the back. "Lulu, hey," she whispers, "we're best friends, aren't we? We stick together, but we gotta embarrass each other, too."

"I'm sorry, Ammy, I won't do that anymore," she blabbers. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay. It's okay. No more saying sorry."

"Sorry..."

* * *

Later that evening, while her brother and sister are getting ready for bed, Amity knocks on the large, wooden door to her parents' room. A couple seconds after, Odalia opens the door, her green hair put into curlers. "What could you possibly need at this hour?" she glares.

"Well, I wanted to ask you and Daddy a question—"

The woman scoffs with disgust, "We've _discussed_ this, dear, either call us 'Mother' and 'Father', or 'Mom' and 'Dad'. 'Mommy' and 'Daddy' sound so... _childish_."

Amity frowns, "Okay, uh... I wanted to ask you and Dad a question."

"Alador, darling," her mother sings, "would you mind if Amity came in for a bit? She's got a question."

"Well, what trouble would she be? Come on, make yourself comfortable, dear."

Their youngest child enters the room and makes a quick run for the bed, where she nestles between the spots where her parents sleep. Odalia sits in her spot and looks attentively at the child as she opens her mouth.

"I met someone at school today, and she told me that... Some people don't like it when two boys or two girls like each other," she explained. She watched as her parents exchange glances—her mother's is one of concern and her father's is one of enlightenment—and she continues, "How do you feel about it? My friend said that she thinks it's dumb. She _also_ said a bad word."

Odalia is quick and straightforward with her response, "They're abominations to society. Love should be between a man and a woman."

"Odalia," Alador frowns as she continues to speak.

"For two women or two men to be in love with each other is not only _unnatural,_ but despicable as well."

"Odalia, may I speak?" Amity's father firmly asks, shutting the woman up immediately. "My opinion is that everyone should love who they please, and saying otherwise is," he shoots a piercing glare at Mrs. Blight, "despicable."

They stare at each other briefly before Amity is shooed out of the room by Odalia. "Go on, dear. Your father and I are going to talk."

And from the moment she walked to her room to the moment she somehow fell asleep, all she could hear was her parents screaming at the top of their lungs.


	5. Spending A Night With You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luz invites Amity to her house after finding out that she's never had a sleepover before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boy oh boy I struggled with this one

As the school day wraps up and everyone packs their belongings, Amity feels a gentle tap on her left shoulder. "Hey, Ammy!" Luz smiles, "Would you say you're busy?"

She hums. "Well... I don't _think_ so."

"Well, you are now!" the brunette chortles. "I'm inviting you to my house for the night!"

"The night?"

"Yeah! Doesn't everyone do that?" Luz asks, smile slowly fading. "Oh, gosh, don't tell me you've never had a sleepover before!"

Amity sighs with shame. Her whole life, she hadn't had any close friends except for Luz, and her parents—her mother, anyway—would never let her invite her over for a couple of hours for a play date, let alone an _entire night_.

The lights in her honey eyes go out as she looks into Luz's, forever shining with life and happiness. "I... I haven't."  
  
That's when her friend gasps dramatically. "No way! You haven't got a choice, now," she declares. "Amity, this is gonna be the _best_ first sleepover you'll ever have. We'll eat snacks, and watch movies, and... and tell spooky stories! _And_ we can stay up late! How does that sound?"

"I guess my dad would let me go."  
  
The brunette squeals with more excitement than the taller girl had ever seen. She can see the space in which one of her front teeth had fallen out, which excited her too, and the rest of the smile shines brightly.  
  
"I'm so, so, _so_ excited! This is gonna be the best night ever!"

Amity giggles and turns to see her father, smiling at the both of them from the doorway. "Dad!" she calls out with a grin as she runs into his arms. "Hi!"  
  
"Hello there, pixie," he smiles warmly, "how was school?"

She giggles at the nickname before answering, It was good. Luz asked me if I wanted to spend the night at her house. Can I?"

"I don't see why not. Does her mother know about this?"

Luz nods once, "I asked if she would be okay with it earlier. She said she wants to meet Ammy, so that's a yes!"

He chuckles, "Well, Amity, I'll write down my number for you to give to her mother if anything goes wrong, alright?"

"Alright!"

She's excited—beyond excited, actually—to have her first sleepover.

And it's gonna be the best one, too.

* * *

Luz grins from ear to ear as she puts her hands on the doorknob. "Welcome to..." she builds up before swinging the door open to reveal a living room full of owl-themed decorations, "the owl house! Or, just... my house," she giggles awkwardly.

"It's pretty," Amity gapes her mouth in awe, gently resting her hands on the coffee table and looking at the jar of macaroni and beads in the middle of it. "Didn't we make these in preschool?"

"Yep! My mami was proud of me, so she put it there," she reminisces, "and look, it's still there!"

"You're lucky," the girl with messy, dark ginger hair thinks out loud.

"Huh?"  
  
Then, she finally realizes what she had just said.

She attempts to cover it up, "Nothing!"

"You... said that I'm lucky, Ammy," the girl with curly pigtails frowns, "how?"

Amity's breath hitches. "There's no way out of this, is there?" she slips out once more. Luz only shakes her head without uttering a word. She finally speaks up, "I just wish my mom would be proud of me when I made things. She didn't like my jar of stuff. She threw it out."

The brown-eyed girl looks at her in silence for a brief moment. "Geez, what a jerk," she scoffs. "I like the art that you make, Ammy. I bet your dad likes it, too!"

And like that, she has an idea.

"We can make friendship bracelets!"

"Like the ones Boscha and Skara wore all the time?"

"Yeah, but like, a _bazillion_ times better," Luz grins smugly. "Come on, I've got a bracelet kit in my closet!"

* * *

On a mint green thread, Amity strings several beads of different colors and shapes—stars, hearts, spheres; green, purple, pink—and of course, spells out her name with the cube-shaped beads with letters.

She slowly turns her head to watch Luz, to which she stops her, "Ah! No peeking!"

"Okay, okay!" she lets out a high pitched yet soft laugh, "not peeking!"

A couple hours and several—Amity estimates hundreds—of stray beads on the floor later, they finish the friendship bracelets. "Alrighty, on the count of three. One, two... three!"

They turn around and exchange the crafts. Amity gently holds the delicate bracelet in her hands; it's a pattern of different beads on a lavender thread, with, of course, her best friend's name on it. "Lulu, I love it!"

"I love yours, too! It's a bit big on me, though," she giggles, showing her the dangling bracelet on her wrist.

"Mine's big, too. But that's alright. We're gonna be best friends forever, aren't we?"

Luz nods.

"Yeah! We can go to high school together and live together after that! That would be fun, wouldn't it?"

"Mhm," Luz blushes slightly, "that'd be really nice."

Amity grins, "We can live in a pretty house! No boys would be allowed!"

"No boys?"

"Boys are icky," the honey-eyed girl sticks out her tongue. "I just wanna live with my best friend."

_Best friend._

The phrase resonates in Luz's mind and she purses her lips. "Okay! That's good with me!"

* * *

_She finds herself in a black room—if that's what you would even call it—with Luz standing right in front of her, pigtails and all._

_"Hi, Lulu—"_

_"Go."_

_Amity flinches. "What? I don't get it..."_

_Luz's face then warps into something horrible, ugly, and evil; the complete opposite of her true self. She proceeds to growl, "I don't wanna be your friend anymore. Leave me alone."_

_"Lulu, no," Amity begins to sob, "what happened to you?"_

_"I said leave me alone!"  
_

She wakes up covered in sweat and tears, and entirely out of breath. She rolls over in her sleeping bag and gently shakes Luz. "Wake up, please," she cries quietly.

Her best friend sits up and rubs her eyes. It takes not even two seconds to notice the broken expression on her face. "Ammy, you're crying!" she panics. She wraps her arms around her tightly and asks her, "What happened? Did you have a bad dream?"

"You said that... you didn't wanna be my friend," she sniffles, "and then you turned into a scary monster..."

The brown-eyed child blinks slowly and rubs her back comfortingly. "I've got you."

"Don't let go of me," she whimpers, burying her face into Luz's shoulder.

The dark brown-haired girl shuts her eyes and holds her best friend close. "I won't, Ammy. I promise."

Amity lifts her head up from her shoulder to be given a soft kiss on the forehead. A warm smile creeps across Luz's cherry red face—she almost seems nervous—before Amity does the same to her.

"Let's go to sleep," Luz's voice trembles slightly.

Friendly kisses.


	6. "I Love You"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amity begins to worry after finding out that Luz has a crush on someone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi fluff gang :)

Amity walks into the classroom to see Willow and Gus helping their teacher place snacks and drinks on the empty table in the back. It's covered completely with heart-shaped cookies, cupcakes with heart-shaped sprinkles, fruit salad, and fruit punch.

The teacher looks up from the table and smiles, "Hey, Amity! Did you bring anything for the party?"

"Yeah, I have chips."

"Lovely! Would you mind setting them over here and sitting in your seat?"

She makes her way over to the table with snacks and places a large bag of potato chips next to the package of store-bought cupcakes. Her focus switches to Luz, sitting in her spot and fiddling with a folded piece of paper with a worried look on her face.

With a curious hum, she approaches the tan girl and sits next to her.

Luz nearly jumps backwards at the sudden sight of Amity sitting right next to her. "Oh! Hi, Ammy!"

"Hi, Luz! You okay?" she asks, gently placing a hand on one other shoulders. The other girl only frowns and looks down, to which the ginger-haired girl utters, "It looks like something is wrong. You can talk to me if you need to."

"Nothing's _wrong,_ I'm just a little scared," she begins. Intrigued, Amity gasps and scoots her chair closer to her best friend and looks at her attentively. Luz lets out a soft sigh before explaining, "This paper," she holds it up, still folded, "is for someone in this class. I wanna tell her that I like her; _really_ like her," she lowers the folded paper. "What if she doesn't like me back?"

The girl with honey eyes pouts and pulls the brunette in for a hug. "I bet she likes you back, Lulu. You're the best person ever!"

"I am?"

"Yeah! You help people when they're sad, and you're funny," she grins. "She _has_ to like you!"

Luz's cheeks redden at the sweet comment and she giggles, "Thank you, Ammy. I feel a little better."

"You're welcome! Who is it, anyway?"

Her chocolate eyes widen and she holds the note against her chest. "It's... I can't tell you!"

Amity gasps once more, but softer this time. She leans in to whisper into her ear, "Is it Willow?"

"Nope. I'm not telling you," she sings. Amity pouts once more and crosses her arms. "Hey, I'll tell you who it is after I tell her, okay? I _promise,_ " Luz smiles warmly.

Her best friend playfully rolls her eyes and sighs, "Fine."

As Luz goes back to being her bubbly self and starting humming a random tune whilst looking around at all the pink and red decorations, Amity finds _herself_ staring at a random spot on the floor with worry.

She's gonna be replaced by her best friend, isn't she?

* * *

The entire class had been instructed to pick one of three Valentine's Day coloring pages to work on: a teddy bear holding a heart, a heart inside of a heart inside of _another_ heart, and one with two bees that says, "Bee mine, Valentine", which made Luz laugh, so that's the one she chose.

Amity fills in the bow around the teddy bear's neck with a sky blue crayon, trying _so_ hard to forget the fact that she'd be replaced with someone else by the end of the day.

"Ammy, look!" Luz grins, making the girl with dark ginger hair look up from the paper. The brunette proudly holds up her completely colored picture of the bees; they're both yellow, but the three stripes on each of them are pink, purple, and blue. "Aren't they pretty?"

"Mhm! Very pretty!" The honey-eyed girl beams. "I'm gonna go and get some snacks. Do you want anything?"

"Hmm," Luz thinks, putting her chin between her thumb and index finger, "I'll have some chips and fruit punch."

"Okay! Be right back!"

As Amity skips off, the curly-haired girl lets out an exhale and unfolds the note that she'd spent just about all night on, just to read it one more time.

Her eyes skim over the page and she raises her eyebrows in realization; it lacked a specific phrase, a short one that means so much at the same time.

So, with her red pen, she signs at the bottom:

_I love you._

Her mother had told her once before that love is a strong word; even stronger than hate. The feeling itself is stronger than hatred as well.

"But is it _too_ strong?" she asks herself.

She looks at the paper one last time before shutting her eyes and folding it back up. She takes a final look at the group of people lined up for snacks in the back before standing up.

* * *

A couple of minutes pass by and Amity returns with two bags of chips and a cup of fruit punch. "I got our snacks, Lulu!" she exclaims, smile slowly disappearing shortly after. "Lulu?"

Luz hides her face in her hands, which are trembling visibly.

"Luz, hey, are you alright?"

"I did it," she squeaks.

The honey-eyed child gasps, "You finally gave it to her?" Wordlessly, the smaller girl nods. "Well, what did she say?"

"She didn't see it. I put it in her backpack," her voice cracks. "I'm scared, Ammy."

"If I'm being honest, Luz, I'm a little scared too."

The girl with umber curls tilts her head, "Huh? H-how come?"

"Well... if—when she tells you she likes you, you're gonna hang out with her all the time," Amity frowns, looking back at her feet before sitting in her chair. "You won't wanna hang out with _me_ anymore... I don't want you to replace me."

"Ammy," Luz whispers, "remember what I told you when we had our sleepover?"

"That you wouldn't let go of me."

Those chocolate brown eyes sparkled once again, "Yep. You're my best friend, and you're un-replaceable... is that the word?"

"Ah... I don't know. Maybe."

"You get the idea, anyways. If she likes me back, we'll still hang out just as much!"

The affirmation filled the little Blight with joy and she wrapped her arms tightly around her small friend. "I love you, Lulu."

Those three little words made the girl with tan skin turn the same shade of cherry red that she had always turned whenever Amity said things like that. She returns the hug before whispering back, "I love you, too."

* * *

On the plate in front of the dark ginger-haired girl is a freshly sliced Honeycrisp apple and a glass of water. Her mother often has her eat healthy after-school snacks, but whenever her father is home, he'll bake cookies or brownies.

She takes a bite of one of the apple slices, and to her surprise, it's an instant favorite; the fruit is tart, yet sweet, and it doesn't taste soft like the apples she usually eats, either. It's crisp and juicy—very, _very_ juicy.

"Mittens! Mittens!" she hears both of her siblings chant before turning around.

"Yeah?"

Edric puts his hands together and nervously switches his gaze to Emira, signaling her to speak. "Mom wants to talk to you..."

"Oh! Okay! Be right back, then!"

And so, the youngest child briskly makes her way up the stairs, checking to see if her siblings are following.  
  
Nope.

She takes a peek into her room to see her mother standing in front of her bed. "Hi, Mom! What did you wanna talk about?" she beams.

Odalia only shoots her a menacing glare and takes her hand away from behind her back, revealing a folded paper.

She clears her throat before reading it word for word:

_"Dear Amity,_

_After more than a year of knowing you, I think I like you._

_Maybe it's the way your eyes look like the amber on the statue in our living room whenever the sun hits them, or the way you hug me and I feel warm and safe and happy and good._

_I don't know what it is, but_ _I do know that I like you._

_I love you."_

Amity swears that she can feel her heart sinking to the bottom of her stomach. She's left speechless, for _so_ many different reasons.

First, her mother went through her things without asking.

Second, _she_ was Luz's crush the entire time.

Third, her mother knows about it.

"Now, _darling_ ," the nickname sounds— _feels_ , even—like venom as it rolls off of Odalia's tongue, "would you care to explain why you've continued to associate with this girl? I told you to drop her over a year ago."

The girl makes a final attempt to swallow the lump in her throat. "Because," her voice only wavers slightly, to her surprise, "she's my best friend. You can't choose who my best friends are."

"Well, I most certainly don't want one of my children being friends with a _disgrace_."

"Lulu isn't, and will never be, a disgrace, whatever that means."

Her mother laughs sinisterly and darkly, frightening the girl. She sounds like a fairy tale villain, just slightly more unhinged. "Stubborn just like your father, hmm?" she taunts, "You think you're so much better than me, don't you? You think that your _flawed_ and _immoral_ ideas are acceptable in society?"

"Well... well..." Amity struggled, "they're better than yours!"

"Now you sound _exactly_ like your father! I'll be having a nice, long talk with him when he gets home. And _you_ ," she says bitterly, "you will be staying in here for the rest of the night, as well as cutting off your ties with Luz."

"No! You can't make me!"

"But I will, dear. _Just watch_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi angst gang :)


	7. I Wanna Be Friends With You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Twelve years after cutting Luz off—and not even looking her in the eye—Amity decides that it's time to restart the friendship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Epic time skip  
> (also this chapter SUCKS I'm sorry)

_Amity walks into school to see Luz, bright and cheerful as ever to see her. "Amity, your hair looks good like this!" she beams, looking at the small ponytail on the back of her head._

_"Uh... thanks, Luz."_

_"Did you... get the..." she trails off timidly._

_The honey-eyed girl turns her head to the side and bites her lip before sighing, "We... we can't be friends anymore."_

_Regardless of the fact that it isn't her own, she can feel the smaller girl's heart breaking; and God, it hurts. The brunette's voice silences itself and wavers, "Ammy... did I do something wrong? I'm sorry, I knew I shouldn't have given you that note—"_

_"No, it's not about that—"_

_"You don't have to lie to me, Ammy. I know you don't like me the same way I like you. I knew this was gonna ruin our friendship."_

_"Please, just let me talk!" The taller girl shouts, making her best friend—_ former _best friend—freeze completely. "I can't talk to you anymore because... you're... a loser."_

_It hurts to say; she can almost feel the words burning her tongue like acid—the aftertaste even tastes like it. Deep inside, she hopes that Luz understands that she doesn't mean it at all._

_The brunette frowns and tears prick at her eyes. "This has to be a joke. You'd never say something like that to me. You don't actually think I'm a loser, right?" her voice grows more frantic every couple of seconds before tears begin to stream down her face._

_Amity hates those tears with every fiber of her being; those are the tears that Luz cried when Boscha threw that rock at her in preschool._

_Those are the tears that Luz cried when Amity had told her that she felt embarrassed after she said a swear word on the first day of kindergarten._

_They are tears of complete and total pain, and the dark ginger-haired girl absolutely hates seeing them._

_Especially from her._

_This hurts. This hurts_ horribly, _more than she could ever imagine. However, at the end of the day, it's for Luz's own good.  
_

_Everything that she does is for her own good, she'll live by that.  
_

_And, without uttering another word, she walks away from the tan girl, all alone; just like how she was before she met her._

* * *

"Rise and shine, Mittens!"

Amity tosses and turns, ignoring her brother's voice entirely, before hearing a second pair of footsteps approach the side of her bed.

Emira chirps, "Come on, sleepy head! It's your birthday!"

"Your 18th birthday," Edric adds on.

"I just want a few more minutes of sleep for my birthday," she croaks, slightly muffled by her pillow, "is that too much to ask for?"

Ed hums, "Well, Mom didn't let us sleep in for _our_ 18th birthday."

"Why would she let you sleep in for yours?" Emira finishes, "Besides, she says your breakfast is almost done!"

"Fine, whatever," she groans, "I'm getting up. Just... give me some space, please." With that, they take about five steps or so backwards with a snicker. Amity opens her eyes and huffs, "Guys, I'm serious. Out of my room!"

The twins cackle whilst scurrying out of her room.

"Eighteen," she mouths herself. Her mother had told her a couple years ago that when you turn eighteen, you have a chance to restart.

Her eyes fixate on her nightstand, and she whispers to herself, "A chance to restart."

She repeats the phrase several times under her breath as she opens the drawer and rummages through all of the papers and random findings that she had decided to keep throughout the past five years.

She finally finds it, the sacred object that she held so dearly to her: the old friendship bracelet.

And, conveniently, it fits her perfectly.

She knows exactly what she wants for her birthday, and she wants nothing more: she wants to befriend Luz Noceda again, and this time, it'll last a lifetime, just like how they intended.

* * *

She descends down the spiral staircase, dressed in a pink and white crop top with a matching pink skirt. Her hair—now green, but with some of its natural color peeking through—is long and unruly, but there isn't much she can do about it, as it's insanely thick and fluffy.

Odalia inspects the outfit from the bottom of the stairs and Amity hides her hands behind her back with a perfectly straight face. Her mother finally inquires, "I thought I got a new outfit for you yesterday. Why don't you wear that?"

"Because it's my birthday," Amity smiles, "I kinda just... wanna wear whatever."

"Well, your breakfast is getting cold. Come on."

She walks to her spot at the table and pokes at the French toast and fruit, both drenched in syrup, on her plate. "So," she begins as her mother sits in her chair, "what are Ed and Em doing here?"

"They decided to take a day off to see you," her mother responds.

"But don't they have, like... college stuff to do? Important stuff?"

"They'll be working from home for the day and head back tonight."

The honey-eyed girl nods, "Ah. And... Dad didn't come to visit?"

There's a pregnant silence as Odalia stares at her youngest daughter and sighs.

"He's not going to, is he?"

"Dear..."

Amity cuts her off by standing up abruptly and pushing her chair in. "Thank you for the breakfast, mom," she resists the urge to cry, "but I'm not—I'm _really_ not hungry at all."

"Amity, hold on—"

"No, no," the green-haired girl forces a chuckle as she opens the large double door, "I'm fine. I've gotta get to school, now. My friends are probably worrying, and... yeah," she rambles. "See you later, Mom. Love you."

The door makes a loud, deep thud as it shuts behind her.

* * *

Amity finds her locker and takes her backpack off. "I fucking hate birthdays," she mutters to herself as she takes out her science textbook. "Dad never fucking visits or calls..."

" _Hello,_ Ams," Boscha calls out, "am I talking to a wall or something?"

"Sorry, just a little frustrated," she rants to the girl with pink hair, "rough morning."

The other girl sighs dramatically, "Yeah, I get it. A spider jumped on me while I was putting my contacts in."

"Really?" Amity asks absentmindedly, taking a look at the old friendship bracelet on her wrist.

"Yeah. It was hairy and gross, and—hey... what's that?"

The pale girl's eyes widen, "Oh, this? Nothing," she lies, "just feeling a bit sentimental." She puckers her lips for a second before making a quick and easy attempt to change the subject, "Where's Skara?"

"With her boyfriend, or... whatever he is."  
  
"Hmm. Well, hopefully she can meet up with us before class starts."

"We'll be lucky if she does," Boscha scoffs. "She spends so much time sucking his face off, it's gross!"  
  
"It's _sad_ ," Amity exhales. "She hardly hangs out with us anymore, and he isn't even that good of a guy."

"Exactly," the gray-eyed girl agrees before moving her attention towards the door. "Well, look what the cat dragged in."

The girl with green hair shuts her eyes tightly to the point where she can feel tears at her lash line, "Do I want to?"

Her "friend" hums, "I don't know, do you? It's just Willow and her friend—"

Amity gasps and whips her head around, "Luz?" She begins to speed walk the other way to look for them.

"Ams—oh, God damn it—Amity! Hold on!"

The moment the girl with messy, green hair catches the first glimpse of her childhood friend that she's gotten in _years,_ her mind goes blank.

Luz—who's officially taller than Amity, probably seven or eight inches taller—notices her staring. "You need something, tiny?"

"Hey, Luz, uh..." she clears her throat, "you've gotten taller."

"You didn't notice?"

"Uh... nope," she frowns.

"Yeah. Thought so," the brunette rolls her eyes. "Let me guess: you think you're too cool to even _look_ at me?"

Amity gulps and takes another deep breath, feeling pressured as the taller girl stares her down, "No. I just felt..." she sighs before loosening up. "I felt... awkward, Luz. I didn't know how to go about... talking to you or anything after cutting you off. I feel like it was also hard to make eye contact with you, ya know?"

The girl in front of her only blinks with disbelief. "Go on. I'm having fun."

"'Having fun?'"

"Yeah, hearing you play the victim."

"I—" the response leaves her tongue-tied, "I never said I was playing the victim!"

Luz takes a couple steps closer to her, "It's kind of obvious, Blight; going up to me after you've wronged me several years ago and telling me some sob story."

"I'm not victimizing _anyone_ , asshat."

"That's kinda what it feels like."

Amity huffs before quickly spitting it out, "I'm sorry for making the past twelve years of your life miserable, okay? I wanna make it up to you and... try being friends again," showing her the old friendship bracelet. The girl with chocolate eyes raises her eyebrows, to which Amity rambles, "I kept this the entire time. It's always been the most important thing to me, because... you gave it to me, and that same night, you said you wouldn't let go of me, and..."

"Blight."

She stops to look up at her former-friend.

"I... I don't know if we can be like that again."

"What?"

"Don't act so surprised," she chuckles, "you hurt me and I'm a little pissed off. Besides, your friends don't like me."

The honey-eyed girl looks down with shame. "Luz, I'm sorry. I can explain..."

"I'm sure you can," the other girl intervenes, now frowning herself, "but I'm not sure if I wanna hear it."

Luz and Willow walk away together, leaving Amity alone with a few people staring at her. Seriously, though, what else did she expect? A birthday miracle?

Yeah. Definitely not.

There are no miracles for Amity Blight, as far as she knows.


	8. Never Mind, I Absolutely Despise You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Boscha throws a party for Amity, things start to take a turn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What kind of turn is this gonna take? Good turn? Bad turn? OOOOO maybe both? Yum

"What the hell, Boscha?"

"Uh... surprise?" she grins—no, grimaces—maybe a mix of the both? Amity only groans and turns away from her to put everything back in her locker. "Look, you're eighteen, which is _kind of_ a big deal. We have to celebrate it somehow!"

"Sure, but that doesn't mean you're entitled to throw an elaborate party that I know nothing about!"

The pink-haired girl crosses her arms and furrows her brow, "Skara insisted on throwing a surprise party."

"I'm not going to your house party, Boscha. I'm sorry," the girl with the bracelet refuses.

"But then _I_ look like a jerk for having my own party and not celebrating my best friend's birthday."

"Then don't throw parties for other people, dumbass," she retorts semi-playfully. "Look, I _guess_ I can go, but only because I feel bad for you."

Boscha's eyes light up and she squeals, "Really?"

"Yeah, but _please,_ for the love of God, don't make me regret it."

* * *

Of course, just like that, she was gonna make her regret it.

Amity stares at her reflection in the mirror as she tries on the pink skater dress that her mother had gotten for her. "How's this?" she asks Boscha, turning around to face her.

The girl's gray eyes dance across the outfit briefly before she answers, "It's cute! Just lose the choker and spiky wristbands and you're good to go."

"No, I wanna wear them. They look good with my hair."

"They don't work with the pink, though."

"I think it looks just fine," Amity protests. "Like I told my mom earlier, I'm gonna dress how I want."

The girl with the pink hair—which is in a high ponytail, rather than her usual bun—rolls her eyes and gives in, "Sure. Don't come crying to me if guys end up rejecting you, though."

"Trust me, I won't."

"Hmm, okay," she replies. "Let's go. If we aren't there in fifteen minutes, people are gonna wonder where we are."

"How many people did you even invite?" Amity raises a brow.

Boscha sighs, "Uh... don't get mad."

"Oh boy."

"I kinda invited... everyone?"

The honey-eyed girl gapes her mouth in shock, "Oh my God, are you _serious?_ You're the worst!"

"What? It's not _my_ fault you've got bad blood with that one girl."

"The _worst!_ " Amity repeats.

"Okay! I heard you the first time! Jesus Christ, if she bothers you _that_ much, why don't you just... I don't know, avoid her?"

"Because," the fuming girl booms, "it's not always easy to ignore someone's existence! _Especially_ if they've been in your life for so long!"

"Okay, well," Boscha thinks, scratching the side of her neck, "just... try. I don't even know if she'd wanna go. I mean, does she _really_ pass as the kind of person who would willingly go to a party with a shit ton of people?"

Amity bites her lip and takes a couple of seconds of silence. "She seems like the kind to go to them for the drugs."

Boscha points at her, "Yeah, true, but isn't Willow her personal drug dealer or something?"

"I don't know! Does she even _do_ drugs?"

"You're the one who said she probably does."

"And _you_ said she did."

"No, I never said—" the girl with gray eyes stops in the middle of her sentence to take a deep breath and compose herself, "okay, that's not important. We've got almost ten minutes to be there."

"Ten minutes? Crap, does my hair look okay?"

"It looks like how it always does, Ams," Boscha answers nonchalantly. "Come on!"

* * *

The party is bustling with people from school—specifically the upperclassmen—and blaring music. Amity is uncomfortable in every sense of the word; just a few minutes ago, some drunk guy wrapped an arm around her waist and asked if she wanted to dance, to which she politely refused, and now her ears hurt from all of the noise.

Overheated from the crowded floor, she leans against the wall of the hallway and sighs. It hasn't even been an hour and she's _exhausted._

Out of the corner of her eye, she spots Boscha with a red Solo cup in her hand. "Boscha," she hyperventilates, "I don't think I can do this anymore."

"What?" she pouts, an evident slur in her bubbly voice. "Come _on,_ Ammy—"

"Don't call me that."

"Right," she hiccups. "You... You gotta learn to _live a little._ "

The girl with green hair stays silent and turns her head the other way, away from all of the people. She mumbles with regret, "I don't think I want to..."

"Amity," she whines, "you're no fun!"

She furrows her brows and clicks her tongue. "And _you're_ drunk. I'm going home."

Amity uses a majority of her strength to push herself off the wall and leave the hallway.

"No, no! Wait!"

She closes her eyes and turns around slowly, "What now?"

"Please, just," the girl with pink hair slowly approaches her, "just play at least _one_ game? Or do a karaoke duet with me?"

The other girl can barely take her seriously, but she feels obligated to do something. "I'll play a game, but absolutely _no_ drinking games! I wanna be sober when I get home!"

"You got it! Uh..." Boscha trails off, looking at the floor. "Oopsie," she giggles.

"What?"

"The only non-drinking game we have is, uh, S-Spin The Bottle."

"For the love of..."

"Sorry."

Amity hides her face in her hands, "I can't believe you right now."

"You're single and it's sad," Boscha admits, "like, come on! You need a boyfriend!"

"That's none of your business."

"Spin The Bottle!"

"Fine! Only if you shut up and let me leave after this!"

The gray-eyed girl nods and grabs her hand, leading her to a small circle of eight people on the floor.

And with her luck, yes, Luz is one of those people.

Her glare is ice cold and would be enough to bring Amity to tears if she had given her such a look when they were younger.

" _Perra_ ," she snarls under her breath. Amity plops down in a random spot and bites her tongue, trying her hardest to ignore the brunette.

An empty beer bottle is placed in the center of the circle and everyone exchanges glances. "So," the girl with honey eyes looks at Boscha, "wanna go first?"

"I think _you_ should go first."

"Yeah, Blight. Go ahead," Luz smirks maliciously.

Her stomach knots up as her hand hovers over the bottle. "Really? This... _amazing_ party was _your_ idea, Boscha. I think you should have the first spin."

"It was Skara's idea."  
  
"Oh," Amity flushes, "yeah. I forgot."

Luz sighs, staring her down once again. "You done stalling?"  
  
"Shut the fuck up," she shoots back.

The circle goes quiet until she places her hand on the bottle. With a short, simple flick of her wrist, she sends it spinning.

And God, she already wants to hide.

"Uh oh," Boscha snickers. "Looks like you gotta kiss L—"

"Yeah, okay! I see!" she berates her friend before looking straight ahead at her childhood friend. "Well, shit."

"Let's get this over with," Luz mumbles before leaning forward along with Amity.

Her fingers gently trace the shorter girl's jawline. The honey-eyed girl closes her eyes and tries—despite the fact that it's nearly impossible—to relax.

She feels the warm, smoky breath of the brunette tickle her lips as she whispers, "You nervous, Blight?"

Her voice is deep and raspy, and God, it sends several chills down the other girl's spine.

"Yeah. A little."

She flinches as she tucks a strand of hair behind her ear.

"How come? It's only a little kiss."

Even with her eyes closed, Amity can hear that stupid smirk. She hates it.

"I don't like this at all," she utters.

"Yeah, me neither," Luz replies, backing up. "That was fun and all, but I wouldn't kiss you to save my life. Come on, Willow!"

She watches in disbelief as the two walk off again. "Asshole!" she calls to her, receiving a middle finger in return.

Yeah, maybe they _are_ better off as enemies rather than friends.


	9. Come At Me, I Dare You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luz and Amity, now officially enemies, plan to meet up for a fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So! Much! Is! Happening!

_"Hello, you've reached Alador Blight. Please leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible."_

Amity takes her phone away from her ear and stares at it in defeat. She's tried calling her father about five times already, and still, no luck.

God, she misses him.

Sometimes, she'll find herself lying awake, thinking back to all of the happy memories that she has of him.

There was the day that he helped her build a _huge_ snow fort; it was the biggest. They had built it together before having a snowball fight with her siblings. He believed that since she was the youngest, she should have some help from the oldest.

Another memory she has of him is when he taught her how to swim. The entire family was at the beach and Amity felt left out, because while her brother and sister were out in the water splashing each other, she was stuck wading in the shallow end, close to shore. When she told him how sad she was, he brought her to some deeper water—not so deep that she would drown, of course, but just deep enough for her feet to touch the ground—and he taught her.

It took a couple of days, but she was able to swim just like Edric and Emira after his lessons.

There's another memory, though, and it's one of the last ones she's made of him before he left. Although it might not be the happiest memory, it may be the one that's gonna stick with her for the rest of her life.

_The honey-eyed girl sneaks out of her room and to the very top of the steps, curious about all the racket coming from the dining room. Of course, her parents are fighting again; nothing special about that._

_She turns on the heels of her feet to go back to bed, when she hears her mother's words distinctly:_

_"She seems to be your favorite, why?"_

_The sentence fills her with more curiosity and she goes back to listen more, even closer this time.  
_  
_"Odalia, dear, I love all of our children," she hears her father argue, "but you don't show Amity a sliver of the love you show Edric and Emira. You've never given her the love she deserves."_

_There's a brief silence before her mother starts up again, "So what? She's a disappointment to the family name."_

_"She's fifteen. Let her have a childhood."_

_"How much longer are you going to argue with me about this, Alador? Why don't you just drop it already?"_

_He raises his voice, making the little girl jump and her eyes well up with tears, "If it's that much of an issue, we can get a divorce. I'm sick of arguing with you on a daily basis."_

_"And what will that do for her?" she chuckles, clearly unaffected by his tone, "Without me, you're nothing, remember? The court won't allow you to have custody of her."_

_"You don't know that. I can make a perfectly valid point as to why Amity doesn't deserve to live under your roof."_

_"Hmm... well, if you're so confident in yourself, then it's settled. Tomorrow morning, we'll go to the courthouse."_

As you can tell, it didn't go well at all. Amity was heartbroken to hear that not only were her parents splitting, but she wouldn't be able to go with her father, the most important person in her life besides Luz, who, at the time, didn't feel the same.

She still doesn't, and that's fine, because she doesn't care about her either.

Finally, something clicks in her head:

"Shit! I'm gonna be late!"

* * *

She sprints to her locker to meet up with Boscha and, surprisingly, Skara. She's completely out of breath by the time she gets there, but still manages to heave out a weak, "Hi, guys!"

Boscha doesn't look up from her phone once. "You're late. That's not like you at all."

"I know, and I'm sorry," she swallows, "I was just thinking a lot this morning."

"What about?" Skara pipes up.

"Just dwelling in the past, I guess."

The girl with pink hair gasps, "Ooh! Speaking of the past..."

Amity already doesn't like where this is going.

"Your little _friend_ from the party asked for you before you got here. I think she wants to talk to you about something, but I don't know."

"Maybe about the _kiss_ ," Skara teases, making little kissy noises.

"They didn't kiss, idiot. I told you that they _almost_ did, before she turned Ams down."

Amity crosses her arms and sighs with false disappointment, "I don't know why she'd turn me down, though."

"I _told_ you that you'd look better without all the edgy shit," Boscha reminds her.

"You did."

Skara giggles, "Wow, you must've been so embarrassed!"

"I was," she confirms, "that piece of shit humiliated me on my birthday! _Twice!_ God, I'm sick of her."

"Aren't we all?" Boscha asks, receiving a single nod from Skara.

The green-haired girl leans against her locker and zones out, thinking long and hard once again. "Where is she?"

"She went down that hall, I think," the one with silver hair answers, gesturing to the hallway behind her. "Then, she took a left—"

"Okay, thank you," she interrupts before walking off.

"You're welcome!"

* * *

"Hey, Noceda!" she calls to Luz.

The girl with brown eyes, surrounded by dark circles, turns her head. A smirk—another stupid, smug smirk—creeps onto her face, "Just can't get enough of me, can ya?"

Amity steps closer to her. "See, I'm actually here because I _have_ had enough of you," she smiles, progressively getting angrier. "I'm sick of you being all petty towards me and embarrassing me in front of everyone. Last Friday was my birthday, and I don't know if you're aware, but you embarrassed me twice! That's pretty fucking shitty!"

The scowl stays on her face for a few more seconds before the taller girl begins to howl. "Oh, you're funny," she laughs, holding her side, "don't make me laugh so hard! It hurts!"

"Well, good!"  
  
"Okay, okay," she begins to wind down, "you know the 7-Eleven next to Walmart? The one about two miles or so from here?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Meet me there at 6:00. I'm gonna kick your prissy little ass."

Amity raises her eyebrows, "Wow. You could at least buy me dinner first."

"Yeah, _real_ funny, Blight," she says sarcastically. "I suggest you prepare yourself."

"Oh, I'm prepared enough."

"Sure you are. See you around, tiny."

"I'm _not_ tiny!" she screams at Luz as she walks off.

* * *

Her feet are sore from walking, but it's absolutely fine, because it's finally time for her to show Luz that she isn't messing around.  
  
The parking lot is empty, except for the girl sitting on the curb and the silver, beat up car. The brunette with the beanie looks up from her lap and chuckles out of amusement, "Wow, you _actually_ showed up!"

"Uh, _yeah,_ " Amity scoffs. "What do you think I am, a coward?"

"I don't think you want me to answer that question."

"You're right. It was rhetorical."

Luz stands up and brushes herself off, "Okay, Blight, are you ready or not?"

"I'm _very_ ready. You can take the first swing."

"Really? That's generous."

"I'm just gonna feel bad for you when you lose," the girl with messy, green hair smirks. She clenches her fists and puts her arms up to block the punch, pushing the other girl back right after. "Come on, try again!"

The taller girl huffs and throws another punch at her, this time, striking Amity's face. A small amount of blood trickles from the girl's nose. "How was that?" Luz hyperventilates, wiping some sweat from her forehead.

Honey eyes watering, the shorter girl coughs up a little blood caught in the back of her throat. Without answering, she tackles the girl in front of her in an attempt to knock her down.

"Is that all you can do?" she laughs, clearly struggling to keep her balance. "You're not doing anything, Blight!"

The shorter girl sends her down with a simple kick to the shin. "Who's the weakling now?" she sneers before fixating her gaze on the brunette. Her heart sinks once again as she watches her dark eyes fill up with tears, her cough growing more and more violent every passing second, and her arms shaking like leaves in the wind whenever she tries to get back up.

In between the dry coughing, she can her a little groan of pain from her throat. Amity bites her lip and sits on the ground.

"I can still put you in the hospital, Blight," she sniffles. "Come on, let's finish this—"

"We already did," the girl with green hair refuses. "You're not in the right condition to be fighting. I mean, look at you! You look like hell!"

"So? I don't care how I look. I'm gonna give you what you deserve."

Amity closes her eyes and puts her hand up, signaling Luz to stop talking. "Drop the cocky attitude for like... I don't know, let's start with five minutes," she advises, "and I'll get you a slushie or something. What flavor do you want?"

"Blue raspberry."

"Okay," she nods once, "try and get back to that sidewalk you were on earlier, and just stay there until I get back."

The girl with the bloody nose makes her way into the convenience store and walks to the slushie machine, getting one blue and one red.

She sets both drinks on the counter to pay, and the lanky cashier with greasy, dark hair only looks at the blood on her face. "It's been a rough day," she blankly states, slamming a five dollar bill on the counter. "Keep the change," she calls to him, taking both of the cups and stepping foot back outside.

She takes a seat next to the worn out girl and hands her the blue slushie. "You know, I was doing fine," she mumbles before taking a long sip.

"Don't drink it too fast. You'll hurt your head."

"Fine, whatever," she sighs after swallowing a mouthful of it. She begins to chew on her straw. "I guess I should say 'thank you' or something, right?"

"I won't make you, but it would be appreciated."

There are a few moments of silence.

"Thanks."

"No problem."

* * *

Amity is lying in her bed, phone in hand once again. Her thumb hovers over the call button and she lets out a nervous breath.

The phone rings.

And rings.

And rings.

_"Hello, you've reached Alador Blight. Please leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible."_

She closes her eyes and proceeds to sit up.

Should she leave a message?

Why not?

"Hey, Dad, it's Amity," she smiles sadly, "uh... it's been a really long day. Luz and I got into a fight, and I..." she pauses to chuckle at herself, "I got us some slushies afterwards, but uh... yeah. I hope you can answer my calls and stuff, because I _really_ miss you," her voice breaks. "I love you, Dad. I'll talk to you soon."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ow


End file.
